Knights and Kings
by Sunbird Riding Shotgun
Summary: Their relationship has a lot to do with chess.


**Knights and Kings**

Nate knew before he asked that at least one of them played chess. He'd been the one to teach Eliot how. During those long empty days when they'd shared a cell outside Cairo, Nate waiting for IYS to pay his ransom and Eliot waiting to heal enough to chance a rescue, it was one way they'd passed the time. Using stones and other bits as pieces and straw from the pallets laid into a makeshift grid on the floor they'd warded off boredom and fear of what might happen. It had only taken a few games for Nate to see how Eliot took to the game and lessons soon accompanied just passive play.

It was one of the few things about that captivity they both would actually miss.

About two years after they parted ways a small package appeared in Nate's mail. It was a travel chess set and a slip of paper with a return address on it and a small scribbled note. "White moves first. –E.S."

It took two days for Nate to get over the blast from his past and make up his mind but eventually he found himself mailing a letter to the return address given with his opening move.

The letters came sporadically in return, weeks or even months after he'd sent out his move. They often came in form of a postcard from some exotic location Nate couldn't help but grin at the image of Eliot in. After the first couple of letters Nate started to keep a folded up map under the chessboard that had their game on it, marking the locations he'd received letters from over the years.

It wasn't a friendship. They'd agreed they wouldn't be friends, but it was something Nate came to look forward to.

About five years after they met IYS sent Nate after Eliot.

Before they parted ways they had made a deal between them. If they ever came up against each other they wouldn't let their history interfere but they also wouldn't use it against each other. It would be thief against catcher, White Knight against Black Knight, may the best man win.

Nate chased Eliot clear across two countries, nearly catching up to Eliot in Madrid only to find a note with "Knight to G-5" taped to the headboard of his apartment. There was a P.O. box number and address on the back.

There were honestly times when Nate thought Eliot had a death wish.

Despite his better judgment Nate mailed his next move to the box and continued the search without making a side trip. Honor, not to mention the fact he highly doubted Eliot would be that stupid, making him ignore what could have been an obvious lead.

The chase lasted nearly a month and by the end of it Nate had found a fatal flaw in Eliot's game. He saved the last move, finally catching up to Eliot in a small town in Italy and catching Eliot in a way even he couldn't escape.

They saw each other for the first time in five years inside a interrogation room in a Italian prison. Eliot had grown up and grown hard in those past five years but there was still traces of the man Eliot had met. He seemed pretty relaxed for a guy in steel body restraints and Nate guessed it wouldn't be that long before he made his escape.

"Queen to C-7." Was the first words to leave Nate's mouth. Eliot closed his eyes, trying to recall the board. Nate took out the old battered travel set, magnetic pieces in their proper places, moved the queen and slid it across the table for Eliot to see. "Checkmate."

Eliot sighed, lifting his hands together to knock over his king in defeat. A look of surprise flashed across his eyes when he saw a long thin piece of metal hidden along the edge. Nate didn't see him take it, but he didn't have to check later to know it was gone. "I hear Italian prisons are pretty brutal. Tell me where the Moneas are, promise to stay away from things IYS insures and I might be able to put in a few good words for you. Given a few days." Nate told him. "Consider it a favor."

Yeah, Nate knew Eliot would get out eventually, but a little help from him would mean he might do it before he got roughed up by the gourds and god knew who else. The only real difference time inside would make to Eliot or anyone else was adding a few more scars to Eliot's already battered body.

Eliot sighed, shook his head, and gave over the location where he'd stored the paintings.

When Nate got home there was a letter waiting for him with the first move of their rematch and a package with a beautifully carved stone chess set.

They only got through four moves before Sam started to get sick. Nate's replies started to come slower and when Sam died Nate stopped replying all together. Nate had wanted to teach Sam chess, wanted to pass it on to Sam like he had to Eliot. When Sam died it was just one more thing Nate couldn't bare to think about.

It was after Nate had drank himself out of a job and into a divorce that Maggie called, awkwardly saying that someone claiming to be an old friend of his had called asking if he was alright and she'd given him Nate's new address.

Nate tapped the white knight on it's side to the last postcard and mailed it in a package to the return address.

The next day he broke the lease on his old apartment and took to the road, trying very hard to leave every last bit of his old life behind.

A little more than a year later he met Eliot again on the job in Chicago. He offered no explanation and Eliot acted like they'd never really met before which was fine with both of them it seemed. At least that was until they were screwed and it ended up being another job and they ended up playing pool.

It was strange, how easy it was to slip back eight years. They were both defensive about feely things but they got into eachother's heads for their own good. Eliot was trying to do for Nate what Nate had done for him all those years ago and Nate wasn't sure how he felt about that. They were starting to act too familiar. They were starting to act like friends.

Nate was surprised at the hurt in Eliot's retort reminder that they'd agreed not to be friends.

Then it turned out even that second job wasn't going to be a walkaway and they really would be working as a team and things were getting strange and familiar and changing in ways that made Nate's head hurt. That black king white knight stuff wasn't helping either.

When Nate got back to his hotel room late that night, ready to hit the scotch and then bed only Eliot was waiting for him. He'd found the battered travel chess set Nate had kept through the years and set it up in the game they'd had going before things fell apart. Wordlessly Nate took his seat and made his next move.

It was the first night Eliot beat him. He'd improved so much over the years Nate was startled he hadn't realized it until now. Nate knocked over his king and sighed, picking it up afterwards.

"You know you should try play black for a change." Eliot told him, picking up his own king and tossing it to Nate. "You try being a black king and…" Eliot pulled something from his pocket, placing a slightly battered stone white knight on the table. "I'll try being a white knight an' we'll see how far it goes."

Nate closed his fingers around the black and white kings before placing the white one on it's side on the chess board.

It was chess that really helped this whole shindig start. Nate and Eliot took to playing it as time went by. They'd play a game after the offices had gone quiet or while trying to pass time in a hotel while waiting for Eliot's turn at the con to come or other moments like that. After a month or so Eliot'd sometimes come over to Nate's for a drink and a game and maybe some pool. After a couple times he started coming earlier to make dinner. Neither seemed to read anything into it.

They both hoped the other one wasn't reading anything into it. Eliot had grown up and grown hard and somewhere down the line things had changed between them and Nate wasn't really sure what was going on with himself anymore. He was pretty sure Eliot would not appreciate the new and interesting feelings or how much Nate enjoyed just watching the younger man.

To be honest Nate isn't even sure how it happened. It was after a stressful case where they'd both nearly gotten killed. They were playing chess one moment and then the next they were looking at each other and the next chess suddenly seemed less interesting. They'd stopped halfway undressing each other to stutter apologies like high schoolers, realized they'd both initiated whatever this was, and made the wise choice to work out the details and What The Hell? factor later.

When they did work it out it was while finishing the chess game.

In a lot of ways their relationship was like a chess game. There were set rules. They planed ahead to make sure nothing undesirable happened. They made sacrifices sometimes for a greater gain. They moved in set patterns that still left a world of options open.

They were also a bit like the pieces they'd chosen in a way. They were both each other's white knight. Both were a little too protective of each other, risking a little more than they should when the other was in danger even if the analogy had more to do with actual knights than chess.

The others were like that to, he guessed. He was also a black king, it was even what he half thought of part of his mind as. The part that wasn't that concerned about justice, who took a sort of pleasure he really didn't want to think about from the control Eliot would offer up to him at times. It was frightening and invigorating and confusing in due turn.

And there was Eliot's black knight. There was that wild, violent part of his mind that could do so much damage and was capable of causing so much devastation if Eliot wasn't ready to control it. Neither of them was sure what it was or if it was anything more than a damaged man's fractured mind but it was there, the black knight that the black king and white knights fought to control.

They played chess less these days. They were getting busy with trying to pull the team back together and trying to make the new start work and setting up new apartments and offices. It was a hard transition to make and it left little time for niceties for awhile.

And things were a little tense between them, after all that had happened. There had been too much said, too much unsaid, and too much done for it to simply be forgotten. They were going through the motions but there wasn't the usual certainty.

They'd been in their new offices in Pittsburgh for nearly a month before they finally got a joint apartment like they had had before. Nate did most of the work to get it and set it up. When it was finally ready for them to move in Nate decided they needed to do **something** before they fell apart even further.

He'd opened the door to let Eliot in, taken his hand and led him over to the chessboard set up right next to the big window that looked over the city and sat down, already setting up his side of the board. "We should talk about this."

Eliot sat down with a sigh and smiled. Something shifted as Eliot started putting out his pawns, fingers lingering over the little white pieces. "What is there to talk about?" He asked, putting out two white knights. "I'm ready to start another game."

Nate nodded and smiled. It seemed they didn't need words anymore than they'd used to. "White moves first."

* * *


End file.
